West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee slams Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday criticised Trinamool Congress chief and railway minister Mamata Banerjee over her demand that central forces be pulled out from Maoist-infested Lalgarh and Jangalmahal zone.

Addressing a Left Front rally at the ciry���s Netaji Indoor Stadium, Bhattacharjee claimed "there hasn���t been a single day in the past two months when Maoists haven���t either killed people, torched homes of innocents or carried out blasts in Lalgarh and Jangalmahal. But even then, the leader of our opposition party wants central forces to be withdrawn."

Slamming the Trinamool Congress chief, Bhattacharjee added, "Her demand is being made at a time when the Prime Minister and the home minister have described the Maoists as the greatest threat to the country���s internal security."

"People of our state must realise the circumstances that compelled the Centre and the state government to deploy central forces and undertake joint operations against the Maoists in Lalgarh. But I am sorry to say that our opposition leader does not realise this," the chief minister said.

Without directly naming Mamata, Bhattacharjee also urged her to "convince the Prime Minister and home minister to withdraw the central forces from Lalgarh." "The leader of the Trinamool Congress should argue with the Prime Minister and home minister in that case," Bhattacharjee said.

The CPIM leadership also made it clear that it would "expose" the Trinamool Congress chief for her links with the Maoists. In fact, the chief minister on Saturday gave enough indication that the Prime Minister and home minister would not succumb to Mamata���s pressure tactics over pulling out central forces from Lalgarh.

At a time when the chief minister was deploring the opposition leader and condemning the killings being carried out by Maoists, a CPIM activist, Madhab Mudi was killed on Saturday at the same Belpahari.

Meanwhile, West Bengal home secretary Ardhendu Sen told newsmen at Writers��� Buildings that "six additional companies of CRPF would arrive in West Bengal to beef up the strength to existing central forces operating in Lalgarh and Jangalmahal. Sen added that there was no Maoist threat in Kolkata.